Every summer we get ants in the house, especially in the kitchen where they like to harvest Apollo’s leftovers. We hate to spray insecticide around where Apollo and we eat, but hate having ants in the house too.
Last year we found Ecosmart Ant and Roach Killer at Home Depot. The active ingredients are peppermint oil and rosemary oil. Without much hope, we bought a can to try. We were very surprised. It is quite effective in killing any ants that are present, and it discourages ants from entering where it has been sprayed. I suspect that the neurotoxins the big chemical companies market may work better and last longer, but this seems fine and I feel a lot better spraying it around the house.
It makes sense, when you realize that plants developed many of their chemicals to discourage insects from eating them. Fortunately these particular chemicals are benign to humans, and in fact we use them to flavor our foods. They smell a lot better than the petroleum-based sprays too.
Anyway, that’s my recommendation for the day.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Daryl // Apr 22, 2012 at 11:04 am
FYI — I was reading some Amazon user reviews on the product, and they seem to be bi-modal — people either love it or hate it.
Two complaints:
Some people are sensitive to the smell and hate it. Personally, I like it, and don’t smell it after an hour or so, but some people talk about scrubbing the sprayed area with vinegar to get rid of the smell.
Second, cats might be especially sensitive, so if you have a cat you might try it in a small place first. It doesn’t seem to bother Apollo.
2 Donna // Apr 22, 2012 at 4:02 pm
Wonder if it takes care of roaches as well? I have some problem with them during the summer months. I use roach bait traps (which Hope doesn’t get into) and that keeps them under control, but this might add another layer to that treatment.
3 Daryl // Apr 22, 2012 at 6:17 pm
Comments I read on Amazon were, again, bi-modal. Some people claimed it worked well on roaches, while others said not so well.
It may depend on the roach species. At least we don’t live in New York City! I hear they are very bad there.
4 Robin // Apr 22, 2012 at 7:44 pm
We use a natural lemongrass spray in our church nursery. It smells great and seems to have solved the ant problem from all of the baby snack crumbs!
5 Don // Apr 23, 2012 at 12:32 pm
We hate the smell of insecticides in the house. Maybe we’ll try that if I can remember to tell Betty.